THat your Petitioner hath long suffered a very hard exilement from his dearest Christian friends, his nearest relations, his estate, imployments, and native Country, by vertue of an Act of the late Parlia­ment. And your Petitioner hath been a very gazing-stock beyond the Seas, and in constant peril of his life, only for his love to this Commonwealth, and faithfulness to their service.

That the late Parliament being dissolved, and the present care of the Government devolved upon your Honours, who profess the fear of the Lord, and the design of advancing Christs Kingdom; your Petitioner believed that he should find mercy and impartial justice from you, and a readiness to loose every heavy yoke, and cut in sunder all wicked bonds, the Lord having led you forth to break many of the bonds of men, in order to those ends: And in this confidence the Lord perswading your Petitioners heart that he had mercy for him and his poor ruined family, in his own Country, resolved to depend upon your Justice and goodness to protect him, and to admit of a Legal examination of the late Parliaments sentence of Banishment against your Petitioner: But having thus cast▪ himself and his life at your feet, he finds your Order to apprehend him, and execute the said Sentence; whereupon he is now a Prisoner.

That the authority of the late Parliament being taken from them for misgovernment, your Petitioner hopes you will please to suspend at least the execution of any Acts made by them, which shall not clearly and evidently appear to your spirits and consciences to have such Justice in them, as God may be truly glorified in your execu­tion of them. And therefore he humbly offers to your considerations these things following concerning the Act made by them for his perpetual banishment.

1. First, that the Parliament in the said Act did not judge your Petitioner an Offender according to any Law in being; and unless there were a Civil Law against what he had done, he was no Offender in the least against the Laws of man.

2. Secondly, the said Act is a Law made after a fact is done, to ordain a punishment for that fact which was never ordained or heard of before; and if that practise be admitted, the very foundations of all Government (which are Laws) are utterly overturned, and every Man governing may destroy all or any of the governed at his will, without possibility of account to man; for that cannot be given or taken, but by a Rule between the Governours and the governed.

3. Thirdly, That your Petitioner was not tryed with liberty of defence, for or against any of the pretended crimes, for which he was banished by the said Act; for nothing was examined by the Committee of Parlia­ment, upon whose Report the said Act was made; but the matter of Mr Primats Petition, for whom your Petiti­oner appeared only as Councel; and if that was scandal, and your Petitioner concerned therein, he conceives that he ought then to have been tryed legally for that crime at the Common Law, and no where else.

4. Fourthly, that if your Petitioner were guilty of Scandal against Sir Arthur Haslerigg, as the Parliament had judged; yet that sentence of absolute Ruine to him and his whole Family is not a punishment proportionable to the Offence; and the Laws of God, and the Fundamentall Lawes of this Land require a proportion between Crimes and Punishments.

5. Fifthly, that if the said Act he admitted to be Just, and to be drawn into President, then no English-man whatsoever can justly or rationally claim from the Governors any Freedom, Right, benefit, or Priviledg of being Tryed and Judged according to the Laws, whether he offends or not, or whether his Life, Liberty, or Estate shall be taken from him, or preserved.

And your Petitioner further Offers to your Honors, that he hath neither in the least offered, nor intended any Contempt unto any Authority, in coming into this Nation against the said Act; he humbly conceiving, That in this juncture of Time, wherein the Parliament is dissolved, and Right is declared to be universally done to all of this Nation, he was capable of making his humble Addresse to those who have so Declared, as a Party much grieved by the said Act of the late Parliament.

Therefore the whole Premises considered; he humbly prays your protection, and suspention of any proceedings against him upon the said Act, untill the Justice of the same, as to the matter and manner of it, be legally exa­mined; That whatsoever he now suffers, being to be under your Power, your Consciences may be clearly satisfied, that you do therein glorifie God, and do evident good to the Common-wealth.